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Abstract Although the conventional Mononobe-Okabe method is widely used in practice，it is only applicable for calculating total limit earth pressure of non-cohesive soil，and not for solving earth pressure distribution. Based on the limit equilibrium theory in this paper，the backfill is treated as a perfectly elastoplastic material which follows the Mohr-Coulomb yield criterion，and a family of slip-lines in the plastic zone is assumed as straight lines，i.e. the plane slip surfaces. The influence factors including inclination of wall，slope angle of backfill，cohesion and internal friction angle of soil，adhesion and external friction angle between wall and soil，surface uniform surcharge，plastic critical depth，horizontal and vertical seismic coefficients are considered. And a more reasonable plastic slip wedge analysis model is established to solve the seismic active earth pressure on retaining wall，the reaction force on slip surface and their distributions by using limit equilibrium method. Furthermore，the geometric and mechanical similarity principle is first presented by means of dimensional analysis. The results show that the total seismic active earth pressure increases with the increasing algebraic value of the horizontal seismic coefficient；but it does not always decrease with the increase of the algebraic value of the vertical seismic coefficient；and it may decrease first and then increase when the horizontal seismic coefficient is rather large.
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Received: 18 September 2011
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2012, Vol. 31 
